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April 26, 2021
By Mark Chesnut
With the recent appointment of Vanita Gupta to the position of Associate Attorney General, President Biden continues to fill key Justice Department positions with gun-haters who harbor a deep animosity toward a literal reading of the Second Amendment.
And, thanks to one party-jumping Republican—U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska—Gupta’s nomination has been approved by the U.S. Senate by a narrow 51-49 vote. Not surprisingly, Vice President Kamala Harris was on hand at the Capitol just in case the vote was a 50-50 tie so she could ensure Gupta’s confirmation even if a Senate majority didn’t approve.
Gupta will work with new Attorney General Merrick Garland , a devout anti-gunner who doesn’t believe the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. Both are part of a growing group of anti-gun bureaucrats that Biden has appointed to key positions within his administration.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to block the Gupta confirmation, stating that she has “a record of astoundingly radical positions.”
“She's levied attacks on members of this body, and during the confirmation process, she employed the loosest possible interpretation of her oath to deliver honest testimony,” McConnell said during the hearings.
In fact, McConnell is correct: Gupta has very radical views on many issues, including the Second Amendment. As Sen. John Cornyn pointed out in written questions to Gupta in relation to her nomination, she has referred to the National Rifle Association as an “extremist advocacy organization.” When squarely confronted with that statement and asked if she stuck by it, Gupta deflected and refused to answer directly. Instead, she generically asserted she would “bring no prejudgments about the National Rifle Association or any other organization to my duty to fully, fairly and impartially enforce the law.”
As NRA-ILA recently pointed out, in her career of leftwing activism, Gupta has repeatedly attacked judicial nominees for “belonging to the NRA” and for showing deference to the Second Amendment on issues such as concealed carry, bans on semiautomatic firearms, magazine capacity limits and private firearm transfer bans. She even characterized one nominee’s opposition to semi-automatic firearm bans as a state senator as “dangerous and irresponsible.”
“Gupta has also openly-advocated for additional federal gun control in numerous tweets, speeches, op-eds, and letters to lawmakers,” the organization said in an Action Alert. “She has not only formed and promoted her own prejudgments on gun control, she has sought to influence the opinions of others in positions of authority and influence.
Additionally, Gupta recently changed her views about defunding police—or at least she claims she did. After indicating last year that she was in favor of defunding police, in the confirmation hearings she stated, “I do not support defunding police.” After fact-checking, even the ultraliberal Washington Post labeled her statement a “flip-flop.”
Freelance writer and editor Mark Chesnut is the owner/editorial director at Red Setter Communications LLC. An avid hunter, shooter and political observer, he has been covering Second Amendment issues and politics on a near-daily basis for the past 20 years.
